1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the production of baked dough products containing stabilized seeds. In particular, this invention relates to crackers containing stabilized seeds, especially stabilized sunflower seeds.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The public is becoming ever increasingly aware of the importance of nutritious diets in leading a healthy life. A hallmark of this awareness is the gradual movement away by the public from the consumption of high sugar content candies and cookies. There is a growing consumption of food produced containing natural flavors and ingredients. Nut and seed products have replaced candy in the diets of many people. With this change in eating habits, there remains a need for processed snack food, which can be easily transported, stored, and consumed without any preparation of the product by the consumer.
Traditionally, cookies and crackers have served to provide ready processed foods which can be transported and stored without any special refrigeration or packaging. New forms of cookies and crackers made from baked doughs are gradually appearing in the market place. These new cookies and crackers are substitutes for snack products containing a high sugar content. These new products frequently contain nutritious, naturally flavored, crunchy substances such as nuts and seeds. The inclusion of nuts and seeds in baked dough products often causes stability problems due to their content of naturally occurring unstable oils. Also, nuts and seeds disrupt the dough matrix of cookie or cracker products causing machining problems.
An endeavor to develop a flour based composition in which seeds, in this case sesame seeds, are present in a snack food is witnessed by U.S. Pat. No. 2,990,285 to O'Neal. This patent discloses numerous formulas containing cracker flour and wheat flour in which sesame seeds are present in high concentration. A seed containing composition is mixed and then extruded and dropped into a deep fat cooker. The rapid frying in a deep fat cooker makes the composition crispy and allows it to develop a consistency which can hold together in the form of a cracker. A drawback to the cracker, as disclosed in this patent, is that it is deep fried. Deep fried food products are often shunned or avoided by members of the public desiring to lower their total fat and oil intake. Additionally, this product does not contain any large nut or seed particles. The presence of such large, chewable particles adds a gratifying texture to a snack food or cracker.
Another example of a seed containing cracker product is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,297,376 to Nelson. This patent provides a new dough composition which has a nut like bite. This is a result of the use of both ground corn dough as well as the presence of sesame seeds in the product. This product is also prepared in a deep fat fryer and does not contain large nut or seed particles.
A baked dough product that includes large nut particles together with nut oils, is found in French Pat. No. 197,802. In this patent, nut oil is added to the dough mix to change or improve the flavor of the bread. The oil is not used to stabilize or treat the nuts against oxidation.
The use of nuts and seeds in baked products such as biscuits and crackers is known. Descriptions of their uses can be found in Matz, Cookie and Cracker Technology, The AVI Publishing Company, Inc., West Port, Conn. (1968) at pages 85-90. As is discussed in this reference, stability and shelf life is a considerable problem when seeds and nuts are incorporated into doughs. Some oils present in nuts and seeds frequently become rancid and ruin a baked dough product more rapidly than occurs without their presence. Defatting of nuts and seeds of these oils prior to baking improves the product's shelf life, but causes the nuts and seeds to lose their flavor or become unacceptably hard.
The desire to improve the stability of nuts and seeds has challenged many in the food industry and has initiated considerable inventive activity. Much of this activity has focused on preserving peanuts, but the techniques developed are often transferable to other nuts and seeds. Sunflower seeds, for example, like peanuts are subject to oxidative rancidity, absorb foreign odors, and undergo color changes. These changes are accelerated where the nuts or seeds have been shelled. Even further acceleration of this degradation is experienced where the nuts and seeds have been chopped. The chopping of a nut or seed increases the amount of surface area exposed to oxygen. For example, cured whole peanuts in the shell have a useful storage life of 9 months or more. Chopped peanuts can be expected to exhibit off-flavors in a couple of weeks.
Methods suggested to improve the stability of nuts and seeds in biscuits and crackers have generally centered around the use of antioxidants. Antioxidants can include citric acid, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), propyl gallate, and others. Most antioxidants chelate metals, such as copper, which catalize the oxidation of a fat or oil. Another method of preserving nuts and seeds used in the making of biscuits or crackers is to coat the nuts or seeds. Generally, the coating is of zein and acetylated monoglycerides. Other coatings include waxes, shellac, and resins. These coatings seal the seed or nut and protect it from penetration of oxygen. Antioxidants and coatings generally do not maintain the freshness and flavor of nuts and seeds as well as when they have been defatted.
An improvement to the keeping qualities of sesame seeds in a flour product is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,134,677 to Glabe. The product disclosed in this patent is made by heating sesame seeds in water vapor to partially hydrolyze the natural cellular structure of the seed. Oil is removed from the seeds and the seeds can then be roasted and used in a flour product.
A method similar to that disclosed in the Glabe patent, but for use in improving the keeping qualities of nuts, is found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,740,236 to Baxley. In this method, nuts are partially defatted by pressing and then are reconstituted in an aqueous solution. The nuts are surface coated by a binder in the solution. Dextrin is an example of such a binder. Antioxidants can then be added.
In both of the Glabe and Baxley patents above, some of the flavor of the nut or seed is changed with the partial removal of its oils. Oil removal can also cause changes to the texture and "crunchiness" of the nut or seed.
An example of maintaining the freshness of a nut or seed by applying a coating is located in Japanese Pat. No. 107,543. In this patent nuts are coated after roasting with waxes, shellac, resins, or co-polymers.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,645,752 to Baxley discloses a method of making stabilized impregnated peanuts. In this method, the nuts are pressed to remove a substantial portion of their natural oil. The nuts are then oil roasted and returned to their original shape and size. After this the nuts are transferred to a second oil bath at a substantially lower temperature than the first. The lower temperature causes the second oil to be drawn into the nut's internal oil cells and to impregnate the nuts. This second or replacement oil is preferably a high stability oil. By replacing the natural oil in the nuts in this manner, the nuts, become more stable to oxidation. This reference is also directed to the stabilization of nuts in which flavoring of a different nut type is added to the second oil. With such an addition the final product, though it may be, for example, a peanut is made to taste like a walnut or some other nut.
The prior art does not disclose examples of incorporating stabilized nuts or seeds into a dough to produce a biscuit or cracker with a stable shelf life. An object of this invention is to provide a flavorful, crunchy baked dough product with a high content of stabilized nuts and seeds. In particular, it is an object of this invention to provide a product which is high in stabilized sunflower seeds.